As the more than 30 healthcare facilities in the Steward Health Care System hunted for money to cover products, shuttered pediatric and neonatal systems, closed maternity wards, laid off numerous healthcare employees, and put clients in risk, the system paid a minimum of $250 million to its CEO and his business, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal.

The recently exposed monetary information bring yet more examination to Steward CEO Ralph de la Torre, a Harvard University-trained heart cosmetic surgeon who, in 2020, took control of bulk ownership of Steward from the personal equity company Cerberus. De la Torre and his business were apparently paid a minimum of $250 million because that takeover. In May, Steward, which has health centers in 8 states, applied for Chapter 11 personal bankruptcy.

Critics– consisting of members of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP)– declare that de la Torre and removed the system’s healthcare facilities of possessions, siphoned payments from them, and filled them with financial obligation, all while enjoying big payments that made him obscenely rich.

Supposed greed

De la Torre offered the land under the system’s healthcare facilities to a big healthcare facility proprietor, Medical Properties Trust, leaving Steward medical facilities on the hook for big lease payments. Under de la Torre’s management, Steward likewise paid a management consulting company $30 million a year to “supply executive oversight and general tactical regulation.” De la Torre was the bulk owner of the consulting company, which likewise used other Steward executives. As the WSJ put it, Steward “successfully paid its CEO’s company, which utilized Steward executives, for executive- management services for Steward.”

In 2021, while the COVID-19 pandemic stretched healthcare facilities, Steward dispersed $111 million to investors. With de la Torre owning 73 percent of the business at the time, his share would have been around $81 million, the WSJ reported. That year, de la Torre purchased a 190-foot luxury yacht for $40 million. He likewise owns a $15 million personalized high-end fishing boat called JarucoThe Senate Help Committee, on the other hand, keeps in mind that a Steward affiliate owned 2 jets, one valued at $62 million and a 2nd “backup” jet valued at $33 million.

In 2022, de la Torre got wed in a sophisticated wedding event on Italy’s Amalfi Coast and purchased a 500-acre Texas cattle ranch for a minimum of $7.2 million. His brand-new other half, Nicole Acosta, 29, is a competitive equestrian who trains at a center near the cattle ranch. She completes on a horse that was offered in 2014 for $3.5 million, though it’s uncertain just how much the couple spent for it. The cattle ranch, de la Torre, 58, owns an 11,108-square-foot estate in Dallas valued at $7.2 million, the WSJ reported.

While de la Torre was living an extravagant way of life, Steward healthcare facilities dealt with alarming circumstances– as they had actually been for several years. An examination by the Senate HELP committee kept in mind that Steward had actually closed down a number of healthcare facilities in Massachusetts, Ohio, Arizona, and Texas in between 2014 and this year, laying off countless healthcare employees and leaving neighborhoods in the stumble. It closed numerous pediatric wards in Massachusetts and Texas; in Florida, it closed neonatal systems and gotten rid of maternity services. In Louisiana, Steward clients dealt with “instant jeopardy.”

“Third-world medication”

In a July hearing, Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), ranking member of the HELP Committee, mentioned the conditions at Glenwood Regional Medical Center in West Monroe, Louisiana, which Steward presumably mishandled. “According to a report from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, a doctor at Glenwood informed a Louisiana state inspector that the medical facility was carrying out ‘third-world medication,'” Cassidy stated.

Even more, “one client passed away while waiting on a transfer to another healthcare facility due to the fact that Glenwood did not have the resources to treat them,” the Senator stated. “Unfortunately, Glenwood is not distinct,” he went on. “At a Steward-owned Massachusetts medical facility, a female passed away after delivering when medical professionals understood mid-surgery that the products required to treat her were formerly repossessed due to Steward’s monetary difficulties.” The healthcare facility apparently owed the provider $2.5 million in overdue costs.

In addition, the WSJ examination collected records that revealed that a bug control business found 3,000 bats residing in among Steward’s Florida medical facilities. In Arizona, a Phoenix-area medical facility lacked cooling throughout scorching temperature levels, and its cooking area was closed for health-code offenses. The state purchased it to close down recently.

“Dr. de la Torre and his executive groups’ bad monetary choices and gross mismanagement of its medical facilities is stunning,” Cassidy stated. “Patients’ lives are at threat. The American individuals are worthy of responses.”

Outrage

Senate HELP Committee chair Bernie Sanders (I-VT) went even more, stating that the United States healthcare system “is created not to make clients well, however to make healthcare executives and investors extremely rich. … Perhaps more than anybody else in America, Ralph de la Torre, the CEO of Steward Health Care, represents the kind of outrageous business greed that is penetrating throughout our for-profit healthcare system.”

Sanders regreted how de la Torre’s payments could have rather benefited clients and neighborhoods, asking: “How numerous of Steward’s healthcare facilities could have been avoided from shutting down, the number of lives could have been conserved, the number of healthcare employees would still have their tasks if Dr. de la Torre invested $150 million on top quality healthcare rather of a private yacht, 2 personal jets and a high-end fishing boat?”

On July 25, the committee voted 16– 4 to subpoena de la Torre so they might ask him such concerns face to face. To date, de la Torre has actually declined to willingly appear before the committee and decreased to discuss the WSJ report. The committee’s vote marks the very first time considering that 1981 that it has actually released a subpoena.

Independently, Steward and de la Torre are under examination by the Department of Justice over accusations of scams and corruption in an offer to run healthcare facilities in Malta.